The safety and effectiveness of many pharmaceutical products are strongly affected by the dosing schedule for the pharmaceutical product. The prescribed time periods for taking a pharmaceutical product may affect the concentration of the pharmaceutical product and/or the amount of pharmaceutical product in the patient. The administration of too much or too little of a pharmaceutical product can lead to adverse events or ineffective treatment. It is not uncommon for those taking medication to forget whether they have taken their medicine according to the appropriate dosing regimen or recommended use. This may be the result of a break in routine, confusion of multiple medications, mental disease states, simply forgetting, or the like. When this occurs, there are several unsafe scenarios that may occur.
For example, if the patient has taken their dose, forgets that they have done so, and proceeds to take a second dose, the effect may be the doubling of the prescribed dosage. This could lead to an unsafe adverse event. In another scenario, the patient may unintentionally skip a dose and may later not remember if the dose had been taken. The patient may decide not to dose again in order to avoid the adverse effects discussed above regarding doubling a dose. However, the missed dose may result in loss of effectiveness of the pharmaceutical product (e.g., in the case of an analgesic, the patient's pain resulting from a missed dose may lead to the patient's pain reaching a level that becomes difficult to manage).
Additionally, serious public health issues arise due to the abuse, misuse, diversion, and overdose of medications. Such adverse outcomes may result from unauthorized access to medication during a course of treatment or medication that remains at the end of the course of treatment. For instance, the abuse, misuse, diversion and overdose of opioid-based analgesics pose particularly pertinent public health issues given the effects and potential for abuse of opioid-based analgesics. It is often the case that after a course of treatment, or as a result of the patient not completing the full treatment, there may be excess medication remaining which should be discarded.
In many instances, individuals simply retain such unused medication. Oftentimes these medications are stored with other pharmaceutical products or the like. In turn, the risk of unintentional access (e.g., by a child) and/or unauthorized access (e.g., by an abuser) is increased. Alternatively, the medication may simply be placed in the trash or some other non-secure disposal means. In either instance, access to the medication remains, such that the medication may be abused, misused, stolen, sold, or otherwise mishandled. Unauthorized access to these improperly disposed of medications by individuals without a prescription may lead to abuse, allergic reaction, or even death.